Green Room

The Embarrassment That Is CNN Situation Room’s Coverage Of Boston

Wolf Blitzer took to the airwaves at 5pm Eastern time, about two hours after the twin bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Wolf brought on CNN contributor Tom Fuentes, who didn’t want to ‘speculate’ as to whether this was terrorism, but that if it was, certainly there are a lot of domestic terrorist groups like white supremacists and/or the Aryan Brotherhood.

Not helpful.

12 minutes later, former California Congresswoman Jane Harman said, while video streamed of the two different blasts, seconds apart, a block apart, we don’t know as of yet whether this was terrorism.

Also not helpful.

CNN, purportedly being a news agency, is supposed to be able to report the news. There is conclusive and persuasive evidence showing that this was a terrorist attack. Two explosions that closely timed at a public event isn’t a boo-boo. It wasn’t an accident. Some al-Qaeda type isn’t going to issue a communique later and say, “My bad, didn’t mean for that to go off there, we’re sorry.” It was a terrorist attack, and CNN is going out of its way to make sure they don’t jump to that conclusion.

But, if it were a terrorist attack, apparently CNN’s threshold for speculation is a lot lower, where they can immediately point fingers that it could be those crazy right wing white extremists.

It’s too bad the network’s systemic ideological disease is getting in the way of reporting the human drama unfolding before them in a responsible way. We grieve for the victims of the bombing, and for all the relatives of those involved. We are all from Boston today, and I say that as a lifelong Southern California sports fan. And believe me, that’s not easy to say. We should all grieve for the first day or two. But we should also rage that we were again attacked. We need to find out who did this, and once we do, may hell rain down upon their heads. In the meantime, CNN, how about doing your job? Report what we do know, and don’t report what we don’t know. Doesn’t seem too hard to ask, does it?

I stopped watching CNN on 9/11/01 when Aaron Brown (?), after the 2nd plane hit the towers, continued to speculate that there was some kind of magnetic field issue that was causing this. Found FOX, which was a fledgling network back then, and never turned back.

Duane, it is possible that this is not an act of terrorism. Just because it’s a heinous act of mass murder and mayhem doesn’t make it terrorism. Most definitions of terrorism include something like this: “and thereby to bring about a particular political objective.”

I agree that CNN’s first reflex is to not use the “T-word” because they are afraid of anti-muslim backlashes and other sorts of malarkey. However, let’s not get too wedded to the idea it’s terrorism. Let’s wait and see what happens.

(Yes, for the record, I think it’s likely it is terrorism. But, we shall see.)

But they are doing their job. Their job is to protect Dear Leader from criticism, criticize his political enemies, discredit his political enemies, demonize his political enemies, and help him destroy his political enemies.

That is why they were so quick to openly speculate it may have been the work of right-wing Tea Party types, based on nothing, on no facts at all. They wanted to assert that “right-wingers” are capable of this sort of thing, even if it turns out they weren’t behind this one.

That’s how the propaganda game is played.

When was the last time CNN used the term “left-wing” to describe anyone in the US, much less a political group?

From watching CNN, and ABCCBSNBCMSNBC, one would conclude there are no dangerous left-wing groups in the US. In fact, there no left-wing groups at all. But there are many right-wing groups, and many of them are very dangerous.

NPR is no better. I tried to listen to live coverage from a Boston station on the ‘net – which happened to be NPR – and had to turn it off when a reporter mentioned that it was Tax Day and Patriot’s Day today. AND it’s HITLER’S BIRTHDAY on April 20th.

WTF? What the heck does that have to do with it? I had to turn it off after that.

Shep Smiht of FOXNEWS was not much better, thank goodness Bret Bier is taken over coverage

KBird on April 15, 2013 at 6:04 PM

I remember when OBL was killed and Geraldo’s show was on Fox at the time. I also remember everyone on twitter badgering Baird to hurry in to relieve Geraldo to the point where he had to tweet a number of times that he was on his way.

With their money and ratings they can’t do better than Smith and Geraldo???

Looks like Obama sure dropped the ball on this one. Hopefully the investigation goes better than Benghazi. Thank goodness Homeland Security was on the scene within minutes of the man-caused expansive gas episode.

Duane, it is possible that this is not an act of terrorism. Just because it’s a heinous act of mass murder and mayhem doesn’t make it terrorism. Most definitions of terrorism include something like this: “and thereby to bring about a particular political objective.”

I agree that CNN’s first reflex is to not use the “T-word” because they are afraid of anti-muslim backlashes and other sorts of malarkey. However, let’s not get too wedded to the idea it’s terrorism. Let’s wait and see what happens.

(Yes, for the record, I think it’s likely it is terrorism. But, we shall see.)

Pure psychopath. Someone with a grudge against runners. You think they’re far-fetched, fine. The point is that not using “terrorism” is perfectly acceptable, imo. *Avoiding* it has problems. There are so many things for which to criticize the MSM’s coverage, let’s not get ourselves mired in quicksand by pounding on this word. And, let’s not devalue the word “terrorism” by applying it incorrectly.

I remember when OBL was killed and Geraldo’s show was on Fox at the time. I also remember everyone on twitter badgering Baird to hurry in to relieve Geraldo to the point where he had to tweet a number of times that he was on his way.

With their money and ratings they can’t do better than Smith and Geraldo???

kim roy on April 15, 2013 at 9:18 PM

This is no defense of Shep since I don’t like the guy, but considering that his show has better ratings (almost 3x times more viewers this past Friday) than the shows in CNN and MSNBC, why would Fox get rid of him? Whether Shep brings the ratings because of what a large part of the audience likes him, or opponents are just waiting to see what he says next, it is not a sound business decision. He leads his time slot.

This is no defense of Shep since I don’t like the guy, but considering that his show has better ratings (almost 3x times more viewers this past Friday) than the shows in CNN and MSNBC, why would Fox get rid of him? Whether Shep brings the ratings because of what a large part of the audience likes him, or opponents are just waiting to see what he says next, it is not a sound business decision. He leads his time slot.

Actually, Shep is on at 3 and 7 EDT on FNC. The 4 pm slot is normally Cavuto and the 5 pm slot is “The Five” which took over when Beck left. The Five is actually a good show. It rotates 7 people in the lineup but usually every day it is Dana Perino, bob Beckel, Greg Gutfield, Eric Bolling and I forget the names if the 2 brunette ladies. When the token lib Bob is absent, often Juan replaces him.

Interesting that Meghan Kelly is an anchoring Fox and Friends this morning.

I’m sure the GubRmint’s official findings will be just as fantastical as wolf’s theories… I can’t wait to hear about magic bullets of how how a group of towel heads out smarted the most sophisticated intelligence agencies on the face of the earth…. yep grab ya pop corn kids the official gubrmint version outta be a real side split’r. and a whole new crisis will need to be exploited.

The left, sum that they are, are trying to divert attention from this possibility of islamic terrorism.
On the other hand, being fanatics they may really believe that right wingers were involved.
Obama led the way,”tragedy”? It’s more than that Hussien.

Duane, it is possible that this is not an act of terrorism. Just because it’s a heinous act of mass murder and mayhem doesn’t make it terrorism. Most definitions of terrorism include something like this: “and thereby to bring about a particular political objective.”

GWB on April 15, 2013 at 7:11 PM

Uhh, no. That is NOT the definition of terrorism. The definition of terrorism is random violent acts designed to inflict fear and…what’s the word?….oh, yeah, TERROR.

If you look at groups that engage in terrorism, their acts in no way further their supposed “cause,” and in fact continue long after their alleged objectives are met.

CNN is not news, it is some strange sort of fascist propaganda. BTW HotAir is not that great either as it is just another piece of the GOP Inc. full of silly opposition to the overweening left. How about writing about true conservative ideas and policies and supporting the real conservatives in office, we already know the left is corrupt and bankrupt.

Perhaps President Douchenozzle would like to have legislation enacted taking away the ability to make bombs, not unlike guns. This incident shows just how flaccid the Homeland Security department really is.

2) He reported that many of the injured were “decapitated” WTF!? Are you an IDIOT?! I think the phrase you are looking Shlep for is “severed limbs”.

mdenis39 on April 15, 2013 at 10:23 PM

Yeah, Shep embarrassed himself. Hubby and I avoided the news all day but watched a few minutes around midnight MDT for any new developments. Shep was on when we tuned in and his guest was a physician or surgeon. They were discussing amputations — not actual amputations, but amputations in general. We switched channels because we couldn’t take it. Unbelievable!